Man I really dig classic metal music. This CD is packed with it too. Now this CD came out in early 1997, and yes Ultimatum are working on having a new CD out by summer, but I still wanted to review this.
The CD opens with the title track that shreds off this CD at break neck speeds. Steve Trujillo and Robert Gutierrez handle the guitar work throughout the album with incredible ability and technicality. Tons of ripping, squealing guitar solos just accentuate their abilities.
E.N.D. is the third track and this song opens up on the heavy side with full on crunchy guitars and some seriously solid drumming by Sean Griego. The initials of this song stand for Erroneous Notion of Death, and it is appropriately about suicide. The low edged heaviness of this song really creates a spooky atmosphere and is definitely one of my favorite tracks on the CD. The ending of this song is still shredding as it fades out to silence, very cool.
Vocally Ultimatum is very original. I can't think of any band that has vocals that sound like Scott Waters'. Somewhat high pitched, yet still very abrasive and angry, these vocals fit so well to the songs it's shocking.
Production quality of this CD is high but not the absolute best it could have been. There are a few songs where the mixing seems to have suffered a bit and portions of the music get drowned out. This is rare, and in fact seems to happen on E.N.D. with the vocals but I still consider this one of my favorite tracks.
11 tracks of pure metal music, if you're into heavy metal this is the CD for you. You will find this sucker in your CD player more than you care to think about.
8/10
Other coverage for this album
Heaven's Metal #54Reviewed by David DeStefanoThe 5 song pre-release demo entitled Symphonic Externalities is a tight album. The music balances heavy, distorted rhythms, blazing leads, and pleasant melodies. An appreciation of the vocals, however, must be acquired. Vocalist Scott Waters, an almost perfect clone of Exodus' singer, has a high pitched, shrieking style that some may find annoying. Despite this, however, it's a good album.Similar sounding releases
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1994ForbiddenDistortion
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2000PurgationRealm Of The Dead
1995Sweet NectarTired Face in Clown Paint
2000TourniquetMicroscopic View of a Telescopic Realm
